A single image for the "Finding Estrella" portfolio begins well before the shutter is released. Scouting helps identify a promising view and clarify how the land, buildings, and mountain relate. Then comes the planning: choosing the camera position and deciding which lenses and film to bring. The forecast helps identify weather conditions that support the mood of the image. The time of day also has to fit the idea for the photograph, since it shapes the direction and quality of the light. That preparation gives the shoot a starting point while leaving room for the scene to reveal something unexpected.
For this shoot, the Chamonix 4×5 was set up before first light, with the Horseman 6×12 film back loaded with Portra 160. That gave me six frames to work with. The Viewfinder app on my iPhone helped me check the composition. The Sony A7R VI with the Minolta 28–70mm f/2.8 gave me more flexibility to explore different framings and consider more possibilities for the portfolio. The vintage Minolta is an important part of this work. A contemporary lens would make the digital photographs feel too sterile and refined. The Minolta’s softer, less polished character helps them sit comfortably beside the images made with the view camera.
At sunrise, the light changed quickly. Exposure readings had to be checked and adjusted as the sky brightened and warm light reached the dry grass and scraped ground. The warehouses stretched across the left side of the frame. The road and streetlights led toward Estrella in the distance, while tire tracks crossed the foreground, recording the work already underway on this land.
Once the film was developed, both sets of photographs came together in Lightroom. Creating contact sheets from each set of images make it possible to compare the six film frames with the longer Sony sequence of 64 images and see how the framing and light shifted from one image to the next. Each offered a slightly different view. The Portra frames produced a strong image, one I would normally choose for the portfolio. The Sony version included the streetlights on the right, and that added detail made the difference.
In the end, the choice isn’t about whether the image was made on film or digitally, or which camera and lens combination produced it. What matters is how the final image resonates with the idea behind it and fits within the larger body of work. This photograph joins the Finding Estrella portfolio as its fifty-second image.